How many Real Estate Agents have told you that “you better buy now because interest rates are going up!” over the last 3 or so years? And where are interest rates today?

It’s not necessarily the fault of that particular agent, because the NAR has been crying Rising Interest Rates for years as well, obviously trying to scare/jostle/intimidate buyer into buying “now” (at that time).

Well, here we are, and interest rates are still finding historic lows, to the delight of many! trouble is, when in fact they do start to rise, no one will believe it…and many will be caught on the wrong side of the Interest Rate Timing, which will probably have a negative impact on sales….oh well.

Those who have had the chance to visit the Hamptons and have either been an invited guest or toured some of the great homes here know, there are many amazing homes, built with unlimited budgets and very fine taste. Artists, financiers, writers, retailers, former politicians and those in the entertainment business see creating a great house in the Hamptons as a challenge. Of course, many of these homes are created with the intent of making millions of dollars when they are sold, something that, while not guaranteed, is not uncommon.

AMAGANSETT is within East Hampton Township, on the East End on Long Island, New York

Preservation of valuable land (and the term “valuable” is subjective) usually brings competition and controversy along with it. Municipalities today spend millions of dollars of taxpayer money to preserve open space for a myriad of reasons, from health or resource concerns to political reasons.

After a few down years, the Hamptons real estate market is back and so is the Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund, which collects a tax of nearly 2% on every transaction completed within the 5 East End Townships of Suffolk County. That’s BIG BUSINESS today! And they are only one of the contributors to the Preservation alliance, made up of private funds, federal, state and county funds.

And while there truly ARE those who want to preserve for all the right reasons, like Bob DeLuca (see below) there are those who may want to “preserve” for themselves…judge for yourselves.

“It’s death by a thousand cuts,” said Bob Deluca, president of Group for the East End, an environmental group. Or rather, death by a thousand septic tanks, swimming pools and landscaping crews with all their effluent and runoff.

We all want to contribute to a healthier environment and feel as though we are doing our part to conserve our resources, but how best to do that in the world we live in?

Retrofitting the millions of homes that were constructed in the days of 10mpg Lincoln Continentals will take generations and, some say as much as $1Trillion. Remember the “Cash For Clunkers” program where we received tax money to get old fuel inefficient and carbon dioxide creating vehicles off the roads? Something like that might be needed, but with the oil and gas industry having so much power in the world today, it might be a while…

There were the days when “Tumbleweed Tuesday” was coined, the day after Labor Day, when so many restaurants closed, shops shut down for the winter and locals took a deep breath and enjoyed their Indian Summer. Sure, things do quiet down a bit now after Labor Day, but not nearly as much as they used to, with most restaurants remaining open year round, only a handful closing for a day a week or a couple of weeks in the deep winter.

Real estate sales were much more predictable in those days, too. The Spring selling season usually started with Presidents Day weekend, where folks from “the city” would trek out to see if they could either buy or rent their beach house and make their summer plans firm. Most rentals ran Memorial Day to Labor Day then.

Today, the Hamptons are a 12 month bonanza of restaurants, museums, traffic and real estate and the real estate market is always “ON”, except when it’s not, which is unpredictable…Fall is robust!